NOW & THEN
30 MARCH
1772: Robert Clive defended his administration of Bengal, in India, at a hearing in the House of Commons.
1820: Duc de Richelieu reestablished censorship in France.
1842: Ether was used as an anaesthetic for the first time, by American surgeon Doctor Crawford Long, of Jefferson, Georgia, when he removed a cyst from the neck of James Venable after administering sulphuric ether on a towel.
1855: Treaty of Peshawar, whereby Britain and Afghanistan formed an alliance against Persia.
1856: The Treaty of Paris was signed, ending the Crimean War.
1863: Denmark incorporated Schleswig Holstein.
1863: Poland was divided into provinces by Russia.
1867: Alaska was bought by America from Russia for $7.2 million. The 375 million acres worked out at less than 2 cents an acre.
1885: Russian occupation of Penjeh, Afghanistan, provoked a crisis in British-russian relations.
1933: James Hertzog formed a national coalition in South Africa and was joined by Jan Smuts.
1940: Japan established a puppet government in occupied China.
1951: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg found guilty in America’s first atom bomb spy trial. They were subsequently executed.
1964: The seaside resort of Clacton was the scene of pitched battles by gangs of mods and rockers.
1966: United States embassy in Saigon was blown up by the Vietcong with the loss of 13 lives.
1967: The tanker Torrey Canyon, which had gone aground on the Pollard Rock between the Isles of Scilly and Land’s End on 18 March, was bombed and destroyed.
1972: William Whitelaw became secretary of state for Northern Ireland as the province came under direct rule from London.
1974: Chinese airliner arrived in New York in what was described as the first civilian flight from the Chinese mainland to the United States.
1981: United States president Ronald Reagan was wounded in an assassination bid outside Washington’s Hilton Hotel.
1987: Sunflowers, by Vincent van Gogh, was sold at auction by Christie’s for £24,750,000.
1988: Sikh militants killed 15 people in overnight attacks in the northern Indian state of Punjab.
1990: Estonia’s parliament declared the Soviet Union an occupying power and pledged to seek full independence.
1992: The United Nations voted to impose sanctions on Libya for failing to hand over two Lockerbie bombing suspects.
1994: The prime minister, John Major, dismissed the IRA’S announcement of a post-easter three-day ceasefire as “selfserving and
2010: Scotland was battered by severe storms that forced the closure of several main road and rail arteries.
2012: Two men were convicted of plotting to send parcel bombs designed to cause severe injury to Celtic manager Neil Lennon and two other high-profile fans.
BIRTHDAYS
Sarah Badel, British actress, 79; Warren Beatty, American actor, 85; Tracy Chapman, American singer and songwriter, 58; ; Sue Cook, British broadcaster, 73; Donna D’errico, actress, 54; Céline Dion, singer, 54; Margaret Fingerhut, British concert pianist, 67; John Gosden OBE, British racehorse trainer, 71; MC Hammer (Stanley Kirk Burrell), rapper, 60; Norah Jones, singer and pianist, 43; Chris Paterson MBE, Scottish rugby player, 44; Robbie Coltrane OBE, Scottish actor and director, 72; Stuart Armstrong, Scottish footballer, 30.
ANNIVERSARIES
Births: 1746 Francisco de Goya, Spanish artist; 1820 Anna Sewell, author of Black Beauty; 1853 Vincent Van Gogh, Dutch painter; 1880 Sean O’casey, Irish playwright; 1900 Ted Heath, bandleader; 1913 Frankie Laine, singer; .
Deaths: 1840 George Bryan (“Beau”) Brummell, dandy and fashion leader; 1925 Rudolph Steiner, social philosopher; 1986 James Cagney, American film actor; 1987 Maria Von Trapp, whose story was basis for The Sound of Music; 2002 Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.